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SKETCH OF 



PORTSMOUTH, OHIO, * 3 



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OF SAID CITY. 



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Pwpar^a by Col. J. E. Wharton, 

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AND ADOPTED BY THE ffO^jJD ^^ 



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FEBBTJABY 2 6, ^876 



PORTSMOUTH 
1876, 



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(Consolidated Jan. 1, 1676.) 

Ii. HIBBS & Co. 

wholesale dealers in 




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Boots, Shoes, Hats & Caps, 

Straw Goods, etc, 



ALSO, EVERY VARIETY OF 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HARDWARE, 

A gricultural Implement s, etc?. 
115 and 117, Front St. PORTSMOUTH, Ohio. 

J±. B. ALGER, 



131 WEST SECOND ST. PORTSMOUTH, 0. 

Plans, Specifications and Detail Drawings furnished lor Piblic or Private 
Euildings, of all kinds, on short notice, and at reasonable terms. Accurate 
Estimates given in all cases. No Extra Bills to be collected at the com- 
pletion of a contract by reason of inaccurate or impracticable Drawings and 
Specifications. 



N.W.EVANS. 



D.LIVINGSTONE. 



evans & livingstone, 
Attorneys at Law, 

112 WEST SECOND STREET, 

PORTSMOUTH, OHIO. 



REED <C PEEBLES, 

WHOLESALE 

NOTIONS 

and HOSIERY, 

TVliite Goods and 

Specialties in Dry Goods. 

W. side Market St., PORTSMOUTH, OHIO 



PORTSMOUTH : 

Its Population, Business, and Mineral, Agricultural, 
Commercial and Manufacturing Resources. 



Portsmouth is situated on the Ohio river, 116 miles above 
Cincinnati, at the mouth of the Scioto river, which flows from 
the centre of this great State through valleys unequalled in fer- 
tility, and of such extent as to add largely to our National 
exports. It is also the southern terminus of the Ohio Canal, 
thus affording a direct water communication between the South 
and West, and North and East; also of the Hocking Valley Rail- 
road, long since constructed, and the Scioto Valley Road, now 
being completed from Columbus to this city. It will also neces- 
sarily form an important point in the extension of the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Railroad, now completed from Norfolk, Virginia, to 
Huntington, West Virginia, on the Ohio river, forty-five miles 
above this city, in its connection with the Northwest, and its 
point of divergence to strike the Southern Pacific Railroad. It 
is also probable that, either by public or private means, the James 
River and Kanawha Canal will be completed at no distant day,, 
and Portsmouth will then be the central point of three great 
water lines to the sea, and, as we shall proceed to show, naturally 
and artificially, the best entrepot of the trade, of a large and 
rich district of country, as it now is. 

While, as we have said, Portsmouth is one hundred and 
sixteen miles nearer than Cincinnati to the Atlantic seaports, 
the navigation of the river from New Orleans to the former is 
as good as to the latter, in all stages of water, while there is no 
important point above to which it is not obstructed by low water, 
or ice. None, in fact, approaching it in business or population, 
nearer than Wheeling, two hundred and seventy miles above, 



[2] 
while serious bars exist within thirty miles ; thus making Ports- 
mouth the most eligible port for the import and transhipment 
of the vast sugars, coffees, fruits, tobaccos, and spices of the 
islands and South America ; the cotton, sugars aud fruits of the 
South, and for sending off in large vessels the minerals and prod- 
ucts of the North. 

The following steamboats arrive at this port and depart on 
their regular days, making this the terminus of their routes, viz: 
Potomac, Cincinnati to Portsmouth, tri-weekly ; Carrie, Ports- 
mouth, to Concord, daily; Handy, Portsmouth to Rome, daily; 
Fannie Dugan, daily, between Portsmouth and Guyandotte . 
Scioto, daily, between Portsmouth and Huntington; Granite 
State, between Portsmouth aud Pittsburg, weekly. Thus, we 
have four boats daily, one tri-weekly, and one weekly, that end 
their trips at this city; those above being lighter, and often 
obstructed by low water. Towboats and barges also arrive fre- 
quently from the Mississippi, with ores for exchange. The fol- 
lowing boats land and do a large business here, viz : Fleetwood 
and Bostona, Cincinnati to Huntington, daily; Ohio No. 4, Tele, 
graph and St. James, Cincinnati to Pomeroy, making a daily line; 
Hudson and Andes, Cincinnati, to Wheeling, tri-weekly line; 
Julia No. 2, Cincinnati to Charleston, W. Va., weekly; Emma 
Graham, Cincinnati to Pittsburg, weekly. These comprise the 
boats that now navigate the river, except occasional towboats. 

Such is the present importance of the city, so far as the busi- 
ness of the river is concerned; but it is the general opinion that 
the effect of the improvement at the mouth of the Mississippi 
will be to insure the building of a class of low-pressure boats 
that will navigate the Gulf and the large rivers, exchanging our 
iron, coal aud produce for that of the islands and Gulf coasts 
without breakiug bulk between the points. From her position 
relative to navigation and avenues of interior trade, as well as 
from her mineral wealth aud manufactures, Portsmouth would 
necessarily be the terminus of such Ohio river lines, distributing 
by other meaus of transport the imports, and able to give return 
freights of iron, machinery and agricultural implements. A 
glance at the map will show that this trade must extend through 



[3] 

Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and Western Pennsyl. 
vania, all of which are now much dependent upon Portsmouth 
for their trade, and the intimacy of that connection is daily 
increasing. 

In this connection, we should do injustice to our cause did we 
not name the projected Portsmouth and Pound Gap Railroad, 
which has attracted much attention, both here and alone the 
line, one hundred and sixty-eight miles, through Kentucky to 
Pound Gap, in the Cumberland mountains, about thirty miles 
east of the well-known Cumberland Gap. This road extends 
through coal and iron deposits the whole distance — is surveyed, 
and all preliminary work done. Deposits of iron at one poiut 
on the road are pronounced by competent geologists only inferior 
to those of Lake Superior or Missouri. Of this rich region, 
Portsmouth must become the commercial and manufacturing 
centre, alike from her location and past progress. 

PORTSMOUTH AND ITS ENVIRONS. 

Portsmouth is situated upon a bluff, which extends several 
miles eastward from the Scioto River, above the highest water, 
and is one of the most beautiful and healthy locations, with a 
temperate and pleasant climate. Hon. T. H. Benton once justly 
said that the buffalo and the Indian were the best engineers and 
land agents, selecting nature's routes and the best lands. Not 
only these, but the traces of a pre-historic race, and the behemoth 
and mammoth abound more extensively in and around our city 
than anywhere else in the State. It was also early settled by an 
industrious and economical people, depending on their owu 
resources, and without asking or receiving any aid from the Na- 
tional or State Governments, or from foreign capital ; has grown 
to a population, according to the local census of 1875, of 13,731, 
with manufactures within the city amounting to $4,202,140 
annually, her wholesale trade to $7,069,185, of which the value 
of foreign products exceeds two millions, now necessarily bought 
at second hand for want of a Port of Entry; while the entire 
business of the city exceeds fourteen millions of dollars annually. 
Our well-supported churches number twenty-seven, of almost all 
denominations. The public schools of the city are thirty-seven, 



[4] 

with thirty-nine competent teachers, occupying six large build- 
ings, including one being erected for a colored school, at a cost 
of $12,500, the whole schools being supported at an annual cost 
to the city for teachers and incidentals of $27,000. We have 
also a large and prosperous ladies' seminary, aud several private 
schools, with a Children's Home, costing $30,000. In 1871, the 
last year of which we have full data, the public aud private 
improvements amounted to $637,630. The city water works, 
with eleven miles of pipe, cost $150,000 ; gas works, with thir- 
teen miles, cost $160,000, and several miles of street railroad 
are now being completed. 

Internal Revenue. — The internal revenue collected from 
this, the Eleventh District, as we learn from Col. B. F. Coates, 
Collector, was, during the last fiscal year, $805,018.30, and while 
the District consisted of Scioto, Lawrence, Vinton, Jackson, 
Adams and Gallia Counties, including the cities of Ironton and 
Gallipolis, the city of Portsmouth alone paid $750,000 of that, 
or nearly fourteen-fifteeuths of the whole. The District now 
includes what was the Twelfth, being the Counties of Pike, Ross, 
Hocking, Pickaway, Fairfield and Perry, which last year paid 
$424,928.10. The estimates for the current year for the whole 
District, are $1,250,000, of which Portsmouth alone will pay 
nearly three-fifths, as she has paid that proportion of the $13.- 
556,555.86 collected since 1862, of which none has been expeuded 
here. 

The annual receipts of the Post Office in this city for the sale 
of stamps, newspaper postage and box rents, is over $10,000. 

SCIOTO COUNTY 

Is twenty by thirty miles square, and is as rich as any District 
of the size in the West, in agricultural and mineral wealth. The 
Scioto Valley is broad, annually overflowed, and thus kept sur- 
passingly fertile. The western portiou of the county, as well as 
some of the eastern, is still well timbered, while the eastern 
portiou, though hilly, is kept fertile by the fact that its soil is a 
calcareous loam, continually renewed by the underlying limestone. 
The timber of portions of the county is well preserved, and the 
adjoiniug counties in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, are 
abundantly supplied with the best of oak, poplar, ash, walnut ? 



[5] 
maple, beech, cherry, hickory, locust, cedar and yellow pine, the 
latter now much in demand for masts of vessels. 

8tone. — In the whole western part of the County are valuable 
deposits of the best building stone, of beautiful drab and brown, 
receiving a perfect finish, and more valuable as building stone 
than most of the celebrated Waverly, or the Connecticut brown 
stone, being more durable. It was used in the suspension bridge 
piers at Cincinnati, and supplies the whole demand of that city 
for building and flagging. It is also sent to Chicago, Cleveland 
and New York for building purposes. 

In the north part of the county is a large deposit of Burr 
stone, prouounced by Mr. Mather, late State Geologist, to be su- 
perior to any except the French Burr. East of the river are 
deposits of fire clay of the best quality a«d inexhaustible in 
quantity, the manufactures from which supply this city, Cincin- 
nati, and nearly all the cities on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 
They also supply Chicago, and many thousands are annually 
sent West as far as Utah, and sold in all the principal cities in 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. There are niue man- 
ufactories in our immediate vicinity, principally owned in this 
city, which supply fifty thousand of these brick per day, or 
about fifteen millions annually. 80 great is the supply of fire 
clay of the be9t quality, that the manufacture can be trebled, 
and yet the supply last thousands of years. 

A portion of the rock in the region is so perfect an argil- 
laceous sand-stone, or nearly silicate of alumina, that it is largely 
used at home and abroad for fire-beds and cupolas to furnaces; 
supplies Tennessee for that purpose, and cargoes have been sent 
to Oregon. The deposits of coarse sandstone are very large and 
valuable — are, and will be, used for furnaces, as well as other 
buildings. The deposits of blue, white, and ferriferous lime- 
stone are also large in the eastern part of the county and not the 
least valuable of her vast deposits. 

Iron and Coal. — Upon these deposits, in their abundance 
and their superior quality, we might rest our claims to your action, 
had we no other, as the facility they give for the manufacture of 
iron over anywhere else in the country, insure us heavy exports 
by means of our routes to the seaboards, bringing back imports 



[6] 

to a like extent. Within an average of less than thirty miles of 
Portsmouth, and mainly dependent upon it for trade, are fifty- 
seven furnaces, each manufacturing 2,500 tons annually — an ag- 
gregate of 142,500 tons of the best pig iron, known as the 
Hanging Rock, of which the iron and steel was made, which, 
in the late war, covered our Mississippi gun- boats, and protected 
them from Forts Henry and Douelson's Confederate balls. It is 
remarkable for its body, strength and tenacity, and largely sup. 
plies Wheeling, Steuben ville, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Cleveland, 
Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. The demand is only limited by 
the present capacity of the furnaces, which will be much in- 
creased as soon as the manufacturing sites are opened to the 
world by railroads. Prof. Briggs, State Geologist, some years 
ago, stated that the counties of Scioto, Lawrence, and Jackson 
were able to supply 400,000 tons of this superior iron annually 
for 2,700 years, and as much more has been since developed. 
Four other Ohio counties adjoining these are richly supplied, 
and a greater scope in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, 
until it is forced upon us that this immediate region, to all of 
which Portsmouth is the commercial and manufacturing centre, 
is unsurpassed in its capacity for iron manufacture by any sec- 
tion of the country. Such developments are now being made in 
the eastern part of this county — finding all varieties of ore, coal, 
and limestone in the same hill — as prove that the best quality of 
iron can be manufactured at the lowest price possible in any 
locality. In this connection we call your attention to the follow- 
ing facts embraced in the statistical report of the Secretary of 
the'National Iron Masters' Convention, held in Philadelphia in 
1875. "Imports of iron and steel and the manufactures thereof 
iu 1874, $24,600,720; being a reduction from $61,724,237 in 
1872. The direct exports of the same for the year 1874 were 
$20,460,752, an increase from 1873 of nearly four millions," 
and showing a regular increase of about two millions annually 
for several years. He also remarks that the greatest increase in 
the manufacture of iron with bituminous coal is in South-eastern 
Ohio. The recent discoveries of black band ore, among the 
other varieties, further adds to our conviction that large exports, 
a6 well as imports, must find here their most valuable interior 



[7] 

port, and that, if the Government desires economy, as well as 
convenience in her own iron manufactures, all things point to 
this as the best and cheapest place for the establishment of a 
National Armory, or removal of the same from points where 
the manufacture is necessarily more expensive. 

Charcoal has hitherto been used here for the manufacture 
of iron very extensively, and the supply is still large, and will 
always be sufficient for this manufacture, when desired, as the 
nature of the soil and climate is such as to renew the forest 
growth with remarkable rapidity. 

Bituminous Coal.— The quantity of coal of the sulphurless 
variety, and well calculated for the manufacture of iron in the 
raw state, and other coals, is greatly beyond any possible demand. 
Prof. Briggs, in his Geological report, says: "This belt of coal 
is equivalent to fifty miles in length, five miles in width, and 
nine feet .thick, and will yield nine millions of tons per square 
mile. Prof. Mather endorses this, and says: "This coal is 
very pure, yielding but little ash or residuum, and has scarce a 
trace of sulphur." A recent development of this coal and iron 
in this county has been examined by a scientific and practical 
Committee of this Board, who report that in all the numerous 
hills, in some five miles square, which they examined, they 
found nineteen feet ot pure coal, which by a railroad of less 
than twenty miles, can be delivered in this city at $1.40 per ton, 
or 5 cents the bushel, and to manufactures for a less price. 

Labor.— The cost of good and free labor depends upon 
health, comfort of climate, cost of food and clothing, churches 
and schools. As we have shown, these are all that labor can de- 
sire, therefore labor here is fully as cheap as at any other place 
in the country, and yields more comfort for the same money. 

The facts we have presented render this cityone of the most 
safe and desirable points in the country for the location of capi- 
tal or manufactures of any description, and they will be wel- 
comed here by an eminently refined, social and friendly people. 

J. W. FULTON, President. 
W. B. GKICE, Secretary. 



'10 



Portsmouth Mills. J. F. TOW ELL, 



J. W. FULTON & SONS, 

MERCHANT 

MILLERS, 

WHOLESALE DEALERS IN 

Flour, Grain and Feed, 

Cor. Front and Chillicothe Streets. 



J. B. Gregory, 
Civil Engineer. 



Wm. Waller. 
Att'y at Ltw. 



GREGORY & WALLER, 

Real Estate Agents, 

OVER IRON NATIONAL BANK, 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 

Give prompt attention to the trans- 
action of business. 

Mr. Gregory is Civil Engineerof long 
experience, and fully acquainted with 
all the lands in Southern Ohio and 
Eastern Kentucky. 

Mr. Waller has experience as No- 
tary Public, Commissioner of Deeds, 
and in the Law. 

Parties desiring to buy or sell Real 
Estate in city or county, and those who 
have Timber or Mineral Lands for 
sale, or who desire to purchase, are 
respectfully invited to correspond with 
us, as ours is the only accredited 
Agency in this section. References — 
To any business men of Portsmouth. 



DAMARIN&CO., 

WHOLESALE EEALEES IN 

STAPLE AND FANCY 

GROCERIES, 

Nos. 55, 56 and 57, 

Front Street, 

PORTSMOUTH, 0. 



WHOLESALE DEALEE IN 

DRY GOODS 

AND 

IV O T I O IV S . 

SOLE AGENTS FOR 

MADDOCK BROS' 

PORTSMOUTH 

Doeskin Jeans & Yarns, 

129 FEONT STEEET, 
PORTSMOUTH, O. 

O. P. TRACY & CO. 

Manufacturers and Exclusively 

Wholesale Dealers in 

Boots, Shoes, Hats, 

LEATHER 

And Finding's, 

131 W. Front Street, 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 

SCIOTO STAR 

FIRE BRICK WORKS 

McComiell, Towne & Co., 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



Scioto Fire Brick 

Of all sizes and shapes. 

ALSO, FINE GEOUND FIEE CLAY. 
Patented — Trade Mark, "Scioto.'' 

ADDEESS, PORTSMOUTH, O. 

H. LEET «& CO., 

— DEALERS IN — 

PINE AND DOMESTIC 

LUMBER, 

PORTSMOUTH, OHIO. 



CHAS. A. BARTON, 

Massie Block, Portsmouth, Ohio, 

REAL ESTATE AGENT, 

For Virginia Military Lands in Pike, 
Scioto and Adams counties. 

30,000 ACRES FOR SALE. 

HIBBS, ANCLE & CO., 

FOREIGN & DOMESTIC 

No. 135 West Front Street, 

Opposite Steamboat Landing, 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 

W. KINNEY & CO., 



CITIZENS' 

SAVINGS BANK, 

Cor. Market and Second Streets, 
PORTSMOUTH, OHIO. 

Does a general banking and collect- 
ing business, and sells exchange. 
Fays interest on money deposited. 

D. N. Murray, Pres't. 
J, W. Overturf, Cashier. 

Lehman, Richman & Go. 

ClOTEIM, 



(Successors to Iron Nat. Bank,) Foreign and Domestic Woolens, 

JEANS, COTTONADES, 

Furnishing Goods 

and Trimmings, 

127 Front Street, 

PORTSMOUTH, O- 



ANKERS, 

PORTSMOUTH, OHIO. 

DO A GENERAL BANKING BUSINESS. 

i 

REITZ & BODE, 

Contractors and Builders, 

AND DEALERS IN 

SAWED AND BLOCK STONE, 

COB. SECOND AND MASSIE STREETS, 

PORTSMOUTH, OHIO. 
Plain and Ornamental Stone for all 
building purposes? Orders tilled on 
short notice. 

I'. SKAKL. NOAH .J. D EYE II. 

SEARL & DEVER, 

Attorneys at Law, 

AND REAL ESTATE AGENTS, 
No. 116 Market Street, 

PORTSMOUTH, O. 

ENOS REED, 

Wholesale &c Retail 

DRUGGIST, 

TRIBUNE BUILDING, 

Corner Second and Court Streets, 
PORTSMOUTH, O. 



SUBSCRIBE FOR 

he ; jortsmoutl] f ime£ 

A LIVE LOCAL, 
REPRESENTATIVE JOURNAL 

OF PORTSMOUTH, 

And the Southern Ohio Iron Region, 



Terms— $2.00 Per Annum. 



All the best styles of 

JOB PRINTING 

promptly done. Address 

JAS. W. NEWMAN, Publisher. 



